38. The BBC ban Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax'

Released in November 1983, 'Relax' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood was one of the first releases on the ZTT label, which matched the production skills of Trevor Horn with the polemical talents of former NME journo Paul Morley. Openly Liverpudlian, the band also contained two gay men, in vocalists Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford. Reworked into a bass-booming state-of-the-art piece of hi-NRG pop by Horn, 'Relax' was a none-too-coy paean to the pleasures of gay sex, which nonetheless found its way into the charts, helped along by the Vaseline of hype and notoriety.

Then came the kindest cut of all. In January 1984, mulleted Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, of 'Pop Quiz' fame, had a listen to the lyrics of 'Relax' and twigged that these boys weren't singing about relaxing on the sofa with a mug of cocoa and the Radio Times. He declared the record "obscene" on air, and called for the powers that be at the BBC to ban the record, lest this "relaxing" craze caught on among impressionable youngsters. Although retailers hadn't objected to the single and Frankie had already played on 'TOTP' and received heavy airplay, the Beeb foolishly heeded him.

Sure enough, the controversy instantaneously propelled 'Relax' to Number One, where it stayed for five weeks. Frankie's place in pop history as genuine pop radicals was duly sealed, as was Read's - as a pompous, reactionary buffoon.